ash&snow
by Paku24
Summary: After the end of the WW2, Yao made up his mind to choose Ivan to be his companion and went to Russia. They spent several days together and it was time to leave.


The article is not mine but translated by me and proofread by my friends.

Original:荀夜羽 (The article has been authorized by her.)

The story is about the history in the 1940s, after the WW2

One hundred years of solitude- ash&snow

"Hey, it's a thoroughly cold day again, isn't it?"

"Well, it's so cold that I'd love to go back to my quilt for a sleep, aru."

"Don't sleep! Look, it's the crystal snow exclusive in the north, which is praised as the ash of diamond. Rarely can this perfect scenery be seen in other countries."

"The description of weather in your hometown is really confusing, aru. It feels somewhat wasteful."

"Ah-ha, at least it's better than that in your hometown. You describe a heavy snow as a quilt!"

"That is used to describe normal snow. The snow in your hometown would be a Rice Topped with Dish rather than a quilt…"

"Ah…Yao, what's that?"

"Nothing, aru… It's not something bears eat anyway."

In Ivan's hometown, the possibility of meeting a storm when going out for shooting is always much bigger than that of having the beef with potato. What mostly leads to this result is that Ivan always ignores the importance of the change of weather, while his little comrade is not willing to go outside where the temperature is below minus 40 centigrade even the weather is not so bad. So when they squatted in the shooting hole toghther, they only complained little about the weather and then complained about each other.

"I'm hungry, aru. It's too cold.'

Ivan hesitated for a while - time long enough for him to finish a bottle of Vodka - and then he extended his right arm and held his little shivering comrade in his arms.

"You should put on more clothes, my comrade, Wang Yao. Let me warm you up.' l "Not because you are cold as well, aru?' The little comrade was straightforward but he didn't refuse Ivan's offer. He moved a little to the left and stayed closer to Ivan, "I had planned to go home before the day goes dark. Had it not been the bad weather, I would have done that.'

"Ah, you meant today?'

Yao didn't reply as he heard Ivan's question.

Recently Ivan always felt he needed Vodka - ever since he found Yao on his doorsteps severely injured, his world crumbled and broke into pieces. And when Yao took his offer to embark on the trek to the Utopia, Ivan's mind went blank, and even dropped his pipe in astonishment.

Even if broken every bone and hurt to flow all blood out before, Yao Wang stood up hard and began to run , deserting his isolated self for hundreds of years. Ivan knew that Yao had been to many places because both Francis and Arthur said they had seen him. When he came here, Ivan knew that he had made up his mind to end his tour in search of companions, so he would come to the home of the strongest fighter in the north.

"Are you ready? This road is paved with mental and physical torments." Ivan was worried about Yao. He looked so frail, as if he would fall down any time.

But he merely replied: "If you have real conviction in your cause, then, even if the whole world turns its back against you, I will always be the one whom you can depend on."

At that time Ivan suddenly itched to cry. When facing the man standing firmly in front of him in spite of countless injuries, Ivan always felt his heart surrounded by some kind of gentleness which he could only feel in shot summer days. It seemed that the small body restored the warmth belonging to the south, which could be taken out at any time to melt a piece of cold land in the north.

"Welcome, my comrade Yao Wang.'

"My comrade…? May I call you in this way, aru?" The smiling little guy looked up at tall Ivan, "you are really a gentle person, aru."

Thank you, you are the one who is gentle. Ivan said in his mind.

However, it was just the gentle person that usually made Ivan have the panic which couldn't be ignored.

So he was still a lion.

Ivan still remembered the ambiguous facial expression of Kiku Honda when he was saying these words long time ago. Everyone could see Kiku's crazy, even cruel expression when he stared at the over-injured man.

Before all of them turned away to leave, Kiku, who decided to go on occupy all of Yao, came to another conclusion: he is a sleeping lion.

This sentence cheered them up for some time but after that a bigger panic arrived〞〞they heard that the lion finally woke up later and began his crazy struggle and resistance for freedom, even not caring about his blood dyeing every iron stick of the cage red.

Such rumor containing the metaphor made the all thrilled with terror. They had heard for countless times at their younger ages that there lived king born in a vast land alone in the remote east; and he was a sage who had created his own philosophy and absorbed in the culture from other countries; and the world had been linked together by his business ships like a pearl necklace; and he was pride, noble and beautiful like the blooming flowers which could be only found on the silk brought from his hometown and never to be seen on their own eye.

Even when just kidding, then would say that this was a man who could kill others by only using an iron pot.

As is known to all, as long as he wakes up, the rule will be rewritten.

Compared with others, Ivan more firmly held this point of view because he had seen his rebellious part like a beast of prey on his own eye when Yao was standing on the top of the world.

And for the moment, Ivan was just sitting beside the waken lion and they were staying close to each other because of the coldness.

"It's so cold in your hometown, aru, my comrade Ivan."

The lion let our a loud sneeze after saying that, then he rubbed his face with his hands and blew on his palm. Looking at him for a while, Ivan felt that the so-called lion or tiger actually didn't exist, and the little comrade next to him was just a cat fearing the coldness. So Ivan loosened part of his scarf, wound it round Yao and held him in the arm again. The little comrade was a little astonished but he quickly expressed his gratitude.

"Thank you, aru."

Waving his hands Ivan did not reply, only took a sip from his vodka.

Waving his hand, Ivan didn't say a word and took his Vodka out of his coat for a drink.

Further long time ago, it was Ivan that said 'thank you' and the king only waved his hand, too.

'Don't come here again, you can't win me now.' the man riding on a horse left these words and spurred on. Ivan just kept lying on the land that he sent him, with his broken blunt sward piercing the soil.

He finally saw the gentle and noble king of east in the legend before. After a long time combined with being excited even flattered and wrathy for his hurt self-confidence, Ivan remembered a question—why he looked so young?

He is a beautiful monster.

The one who was invented to be a monster in his older comrade's mind didn't notice Ivan's more and more livid face at all. He felt much warmer with a scarf and the restored fingers asleep, so he swung the hands and shook the fists.

'Comrade Wang, what is it called?' Taking the bottle away from his mouth, Ivan felt he had drunk too much because he stared at Yao's frozen bright red face which was reminiscent of the sweet apple in the autumn and had a desire to take a bite. 'I meant that famous…eh, what?'

'Gongbao chicken?' the apple replied, blinking.

'No, no, it's the skill that breaking a wooden board with a fist.'

'Chinese Wushu, aru, but you call it Kung Fu? But in my hometown people don't use an ax to chop wood but only say 'Ha' and do like this, aru. 'Yao gestured and took advantage of this to put his hands in Ivan's coat pocket to warm up.

'Really?'

'Really. I really cheated you, aru.'

The drink was the only petrol to cause one's illusion about being in the spring when it was actually cold. Ivan would like to say much when he drunk in such condition. Then the little comrade in Ivan's eye was more like a little brother to play a trick on. So Ivan began to plan carefully so that he could lift Yao's collar to put snow in it when Yao didn't notice, and listen to his loud cry.

'This is Kung Fu?' Ivan grabbed the snow near him as soon as he put the bottle down and secretly used his right hand to seize Yao's cloth tightly, 'It is useless.'

'Why is it useless?' Yao took his hands out of Ivan's pocket and began to take apart his gun. He usually wiped all the parts and quickly reset them again. His could use his fingers to describe the beard of a dragon hiding behind a cloud, so he could do this more skillfully than Ivan when he got used to.

'It's certainly useless. Haven's you understood, my comrade? If you want to expel the enemy, a gun is much more useful than a Kung Fu ace.' While saying this, Ivan carefully watched Yao's collar——his comrade usually tied it tightly so it would be a little difficult to put the snow ball from it.

'I've long understood this, aru.' His little comrade was still busy doing his exercises which he repeated for several times every day so he didn't raise his head, 'I completely understood it when others aimed at my head with a gun.'

The cutting wind blew, which made Ivan crumble his snow ball with a cold shiver and sober up a lot.

'So I seemed to have been asleep for some time, aru. When I woke up, I found the gun you invented really powerful, much more powerful than the Shoutong I've seen, aru. But you are wrong at one point, comrade Ivan. I consider the aim of Kung Fu only to strengthen oneself and give a lesson on the impolite, not to kill others. But as for your gun…' Saying this, Yao finished resetting the gun, raised it and aimed at the distant area for a while, then put it down and opened the gun case tied in his waist to put it back: 'My fingers got stiff again…The weather in your hometown is too cold to endure so I'll beat you damned bear aru if you put the snow in my cloth, comrade Ivan. '

'Eh, it seems that you said something strange just now, comrade Yao?'

'I said nothing, comrade Ivan. I only hear that drinking too often will lead one's brain soaking in the alcohol for too long and becoming a damned bear.'

'Eh, I may actually be a little drunk for I seemed to have heard some strange words again.'

Putting the freezing drink back to his coat, Ivan felt cold again.

Though his little comrade smiled so warmly in the coldness, the word 'you' (*pl.) from his mouth still made Ivan very unpleasant——once for Yao, all except himself and his family were robbers who might only hurt him and plunder the invaluable art works from him.

Of course Ivan didn't want to refer to this point. The reason why he knew so well about all that had happened on those days was that he was also one of them who went to Yao's home again and again to separate him, rob him and insult him.

But Ivan also remembered that after they gave the robbed treasures to their bosses to count, what remained was a couple days' sleeplessness as soon as the sense of excitement for fight calmed down. Such mental torture came from the weak man beat to curl up in the corner by them. The flame burning in his black eyes was the nightmare of the robbers for a long time. So, in order to overcome the suffering of it, they planned more things to separate, rob and insult him.

But the flame never went out.

Now his little comrade seemed to forget some things. He called him Big Brother and looked respectfully at the bright way he described to him. He looked like that he had forgotten seeing Ivan hundreds of years ago and standing on the top of the world alone for a long time. So Ivan also smiled to him every day, never saying a word about the past.

However, Ivan knew that for his little comrade living for thousands of years, those intolerable days would be finally referred to one day when he was able to face. There was a scar on Yao's back because he usually touched his back in unawareness, and this reminded Ivan of his own old scars left by heavy gunfire.

Those scars seemed to have healed up, but the pain came again as soon as the winter arrived, which made Ivan be awake for the whole night. So he showed great understanding of Yao's action and expressed his care in the proper time.

It was only in moments like this would he see any hatred on the face of his little comrade, who excelled in hiding his real emotions. This was an expression that neither belonged to an emperor in power nor a loser in despair, but that of a victim. Seeing this expression on Yao's face delighted Ivan, it assured him of Yao's status as his fellow comrade that walked the same path as him.

Not the elder brother who still cared for his treacherous brother and swallowed his tears behind a cold mask of hatred.

"If you could, you would kill him right?" Ivan once asked in their only discussion regarding this. But Yao remained silent. So Ivan continued, "You could forgive him?"

"I don't know aru. If he realized that he was on a slippery slope towards betrayal, and felt remorse… no, I don't know…"

At that moment Yao's expression made Ivan feel that it was cruel to even mention this. After a long while, he finally heard the answer. "From now on, I will not let him stand behind me anymore…"

"Then… let me stand there instead, my comrade."

"Thank you, comrade Ivan."

Ivan used to start forging his "revolutionary friendship" with Yao under this kind of condition—of course pretending to be innocent first.

Hugging and kissing, these formalities in the North are some kind of torture for his little comrade. Because of this Ivan once was keen on hugging and kissing Yao, telling him that these are all formalities, and that he should just accept them. And when the Asian who respected all forms of manners hugged him back stiffly, awkardly patting his back, Ivan would repress bursting out in laughter, then throw himself on his little comrade, crushing his body with a suffocating hug and kissing his cheeks with ferocity, and watch as his comrade goes beet red with embarrassment.

Ivan loved to do this. It gave him a certain satisfaction of taking care of him, of being his protector.

Later in drunkenness Ivan told him that merely shaking hands is enough between comrades. After that, barring the chilly days like today, whenever Ivan approached him Yao would tense up, ready to knock Ivan flying away.

"The wind is less fierce now. The snow is about to stop too aru." Yao stood up and almost pulled Ivan up in the process, luckily he soon realized his mistake and took the scarf off his neck. "Thank you, aru."

Ivan did not answer, instead he put the scarf back on his neck silently. The scarf that had just left Yao's shoulders felt warm to the touch with a faint smell of sunlight. Ivan hoped that the storm had raged longer, and then he didn't have to face the grim situation, only sit and wait for the storm to pass with his little comrade. This thought should better be left unspoken - he was the cold-blooded devil in the whole world's eyes.

The devil was fascinated by warmth - he would definitely be ridiculed.

"I have to return now aru, comrade Ivan."

"Wish you the best of luck, comrade Yao."

"I kinda miss your grilled beef and potatoes."

"You can build your own canteens later to cook grilled beef and potatoes everyday."

"That sounds nice, I'll try aru."

"Before that turn all your food into bread."

"…"

The moment Yao disappeared in the end of the snowy field, Ivan felt that Yao who left running and jumping was still a teenager indeed.

The moment Yao looked back, he saw the strapping man standing on the horizon became as small as a shadow in the snowy field because of the distance.

And then, they both turned their backs to the other, one to the North, one to the South.

We are the strongest fighters standing on the same continent and have chosen the same road but……maybe towards different destinations.

This is a path yet unwalked. We do not have any history to consult, anybody to guide us… so, when one falls, the other must learn from his mistakes, and continue on the path.

Are you ready? This road is paved with mental and physical torments.

If you have real conviction in your cause, then, even if the whole world turns its back against you, I will always be the one whom you can depend on.

So, let me back you up.

My comrade.


End file.
